Author: Serkadis

Facebook enjoys a massive audience of 350 million users and Twitter, while a lot smaller, commands some pretty impressive sway; yet, it’s still impressive to see the power they have after just a few years of existence. For the last four years, the number one single in the UK for Christmas came from the winner of X-Factor, one of Simon Cowell’s many reality talent shows, which was timed to end just before Christmas. This year, the number one single was Rage Against the Machine’s 15-years-old “Killing in the Name,” thanks to a massively popular Facebook campaign.

Londoners Jon and Tracy Morter were fed up with the status quo and decided to do something to change it by trying to push out this year’s X-Factor winner from the number one spot. So, they did as anyone fighting “the system” does these days, they set up a Facebook Group and started promoting their cause. The big surprise, though, was that it actually worked, apparently the message resonated with a lot of folks and word of the movement began spreading.

Soon enough, the Facebook group “Rage Against the Machine for Christmas no.1” got 1 million members, perhaps spurred by comedian Peter Serafinowicz who urged his over 268,000 Twitter followers to join the campaign. But even with the apparent popularity, half of those people wou… (read more)

To cut through public perception and other biased measures, a group of economists invented an algorithm for overall CEO performance.

The study ranks CEOs by averaging three measures:

1. Country-adjusted total shareholder return -- how a company performed against the local stock market.
2. Industry-adjusted total shareholder return -- how a company performed against the industry average.
3. Change in market capitalization -- how a company changed in market value.

In fact, some of the most popular CEOs of the past decade did pretty well by this measure too.

A ranking and analysis of the top 50 appears in the January issue of the Harvard Business Review.

See The 10 Best CEOs In The World>>

p.s. The study considers data about CEOs that assumed their job after January 1995, which does not include Jack Welch, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates.

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See Also:

• The Best Performing Stock Markets Of The Decade
• The Best Performing Stocks Of The Decade
• Congress Weighs Anti-Fracking Law That Could Demolish The Exxon-XTO Deal

Spending in Washington appears to be out of control, but even Nancy Pelosi has made noises about pulling back spending eventually.

Although the national debt has been the source of worry for a long time, it’s clear that popular attention paid towards Washington’s rising tab is a matter of interest like never before.

And though there’s very little in the bond market to suggest that our lenders are getting freaked out, debt will be an election issue in 2010 — perhaps for the first time ever.

The problem is that it won’t be easy to throttle down on spending without slowing GDP (in the short term) and no politician wants to be responsible for that.

A new report from Goldman’s Jan Hatzius (via ShiftCTRL group) discusses the timing of the “handoff” when stimulative policies get wound down, and the net effect of government action is de-stimulus.

It may be sooner than you think. Think 2011. The challenge is, how?

————

Ultimately, what decisions are made will depend on
what budgetary savings are politically and practically
possible. As noted above, discretionary spending is an
obvious place to look for medium term savings. The
difficulty is that more than half of this segment goes to
the military, which is unlikely to see significant
reductions, at least for FY2011. In fact, it appears
likely that “regular” defense spending (i.e., outlays not
related to current overseas operations) could be
boosted in the forthcoming budget proposal. The
nondefense segment of discretionary spending can and
probably will be a focus for cuts over the next few
years. But long-term commitments in this area are
more difficult than in most others, as it is especially
subject to the whims of Congress, and in any case
makes up only 20% of total spending. 
 
Healthcare (specifically Medicare) is another obvious
area for savings. The elephant in the living room
known as health reform dominates the outlook in this
area, however. The dominant proposal from the
Senate includes a number of positive structural
reforms that in themselves should lower growth in
federal (and possibly private) health spending, though
the structural savings will build slowly over time.
Substantial “hard” cuts to Medicare payments and
taxes on the healthcare sector are more reliably
estimated, and are the primary mechanism for savings
in the bill over the medium term. However, most of
the savings achieved over the next ten years will be
funneled back into new spending, so any significant
savings from the bill would be a longer term
proposition. Importantly, at least some of the spending
cuts used to fund health reform would have eventually
been used to improve the fiscal balance, so while the
Senate bill improves the budget outlook according to
CBO, it does also potentially preclude substantial net
reduction in federal health spending over the next five
to seven years. 2 

 This leaves tax hikes. Some increase in taxation
appears inevitable, for two reasons: (1) the
administration has proposed to let some of the tax cuts
enacted in 2001/2003 expire, which would increase
marginal rates on income above $250,000, and rates
on capital gains and dividend income; and (2) if the
discussion of spending above holds true, it will be
difficult to achieve primary budget balance without
tax hikes. In order to raise 2% of GDP—roughly the
size of the structural primary budget deficit we
estimate once the effects of the  recession have
faded—tax rates would need to rise on the order of 30
percentage points on incomes above $250,000, nearly
doubling the tax burden at that level. An increase even
a fraction of this size would be very difficult to enact. 
 
One interesting solution to this problem is the notion
of a phased-in consumption tax. This would involve
the enactment of a sales or value added tax, to be
implemented after a period of delay, and scaled up
over time.
    

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See Also:

• Niall Ferguson: How China’s Insane Fiscal Policies Pumped Up Chimerica And Crushed America
• 10 States On The Verge Of A Fiscal Catastrophe
• Bank Of China Official: The World Is Running Out Of Money To Buy US Debt

Filed under: Concept Cars, Hybrid, Sedan, Geneva Motor Show, BMW

Late last month, BMW officially revealed its next generation 5 series sedan in Munich and the opening salvo of powertrains includes the usual array of gas and diesel six- and eight-cylinder engines. However, with the recent launches of the ActiveHybrid X6 and 7, no one expects it to stay that way for long. BMW officials have acknowledged its intent to expand hybrid capability to other models going forward and, as the next redesign, the 5 would be the logical choice.

We’re not sure if the new 5 will show up at the Detroit show next month, but it should appear by the Geneva Motor Show in March. At that time, the ActiveHybrid 5 will probably debut as a concept with the production version possibly arriving by the end of 2010. At this point, it appears unlikely that we’ll see any more BMW applications of the two-mode hybrid system used in the X6 (with the possible exception of the X5). Instead, the modular mild hybrid from the 7 is the likely candidate since it delivers much of the benefit at a lower cost and smaller packaging size.

[Source: BMWBlog]

Rumormill: BMW ActiveHybrid 5 concept could debut in Geneva originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Malone of Arlington Heights has an MBA from DePaul University, but his fundraising job with a nonprofit agency dried up months ago, leaving him to join the ranks of the unemployed.

Rather than make the trip into Chicago to utilize DePaul’s career placement services, Malone turned to a closer resource: Harper College in Palatine.

Last spring, he began attending the college’s monthly Career Stimulus sessions, held in its Wojcik Conference Center, and he was not alone. Each one draws nearly 200 people, estimates adult learning specialist Nancy Wajler.

“I’m having to look at making a career change, and the support I get from people here keeps me on track,” said Malone, who hopes to get into marketing and sales. “It’s all about networking, and meeting more and more people.”

On Friday, a standing-room-only crowd filled the conference dining room for the last session of this year, which put a comic spin on the economic downturn.

Richard Oberbruner, a Second City graduate and career resource facilitator with the DuPage County Workforce Development Division, delivered the keynote address, which he called, “Lighten Up – It’s Only Unemployment.”

He used improvisational games to mimic interviewing situations, including having them turn every question into another question.

“I sense that just beneath the surface is frustration and anger,” Oberbruner said afterward. “These improv games allow them to express themselves and release some of the tension.”

Practicing these types of games, he added, help job seekers to think on their feet and sharpen their interviewing skills.

Oberbruner also encouraged his audience to be proactive in closing the interview, and not let the interviewer have the last word.

“Look the interviewer in the eye and tell them you think you are a good fit for the company, and that you look forward to hearing from them,” Oberbruner said.

Such pep talks went a long way for people like Bill and Wendy Anderson of Schaumburg, who both have attended the Career Stimulus programs since May.

“I had been with the same company for 26 years,” said Bill Anderson of his job as a warehousing supervisor. “This made me understand how hard it is to find work and how diversified the marketplace is.”

On Friday, the couple attended a breakout session on establishing realistic New Year’s resolutions for their unemployed status, and another one on stress management.

Harper’s Professional Advancement and Learning Center launched the Career Stimulus sessions last March, and already has drawn more than 1,500 people.

“Our role is to build services for adult learners,” Wajler said, “and right now, this is where we need to be, with the unemployed.”

“Picture Japan, suffering from flooding along its coastal cities and contamination of its fresh water supply, eyeing Russia’s Sakhalin Island oil and gas reserves as an energy source . . . Envision Pakistan, India and China – all armed with nuclear weapons – skirmishing at their borders over refugees, access to shared river and arable land.”

This might look like the minutes from a meeting of Hollywood executives. In fact, it is from a Pentagon memo on the possible consequences of global warming. Climate change is not just an environmental question, it could have a massive impact on international security.

Economist J. Bradford Delong found this Pentagon statement from 2007, which has special relevance following the disappointing Copenhagen talks.

Read the rest of Delong’s Ten Economic Paragraphs Worth Reading: December 21, 2009 –>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• 10 Looming Geopolitical Disasters
• Desmond Lachman: The Dollar Is A Mess, But Here’s Why The World Can’t Ditch It
• The Global Rebalancing Nightmare Has Yet To Begin

Austria represents a financially-leveraged nation that could be one of the first to go if the global recovery hits a pothole and credit markets tighten up. 

ETFdb: Austria recently announced the nationalization of Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank International, the country’s sixth-largest bank and the second major financial institution to be nationalized since the start of the financial crisis.

…

There are reports that other Austrian banks are on a “watch list,” indicating that the country’s financial industry may be on the verge of a disaster. Such a development could be devastating for the entire Austrian economy. As Austria has evolved from a primarily state-owned economy to a well-developed social market economy, the financial sector has played a major role. Vienna is one of the major financial centers of Europe, serving as a bridge to Eastern Europe and home to many of the leading corporations in business with new EU member states.

Thus Austria could be tomorrow’s Greece, and its exchange traded fund, iShares MSCI Austria (EWO) hasn’t collapsed yet. In fact it’s rallied year to date, thus has a decent amount of ground it could give back should positive expectations get slammed.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• It’s Spreading: The Greek Flu Comes To Austria
• BOOM: S&P Downgrades Greece
• Gartman: Greece’s Prime Minister Doesn’t Realize How Much Trouble He’s In

We’ve noted that the NFL has instituted its own overly restrictive social media policy that limits how and when players can send Twitter messages, but I hadn’t realized that the NBA had done something similar as well. Unfortunately, it looks like Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks ran afoul of those rules and was fined $7,500 for a single Twitter message. What awful thing did he say? Well, he was actually just happy about a victory:

“Back to 500. Yess!!! “500” means where doing good. Way to Play Hard Guys.”

Seems like the sort of thing the NBA should be encouraging. It’s a nice connection with fans, who feel that they’re getting in on some of the excitement from a player they like. So, what was the problem? Well, the NBA “rules” say no Twittering until after the media sessions are done after the game. So, basically, he was too anxious to spread the excitement to his fans. And this is fine-worthy? It’s hard to make sense of a policy that tells players not to connect with fans, and not to let them in on the excitement.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Ford

Ford has named Jamie Allison as the new director of its North American Motorsports programs. Set to replace Brian Wolfe, Allison has been working in Ford Racing for six years and has been with the Dearborn automaker for 22 years. While part of the racing group, Allison has worked in one of the more profitable segments of the business, selling racing performance parts. During his tenure Allison oversaw the launch of Ford selling turn-key race cars like the FR500C, the FR500S and of course the Cobra Jet drag race car.

The race car program has been very successful both in terms of sales and on the track, with both the 2008 and 2010 runs of 50 Cobra Jets sold out before the cars were even built. The announcement of Allison’s promotion came during a media event this week where Allison revealed the next product from Ford Racing, which you’ll here more about next week. Wolfe has been named to a new position in the product development organization.

[Source: Ford]
Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Ford names Jamie Allison director North American Motorsport

Ford names Jamie Allison director North American Motorsport originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Imagine this.

A huge financial institution with a recent history of misbegotten investment decisions gets a huge capital infusion from the government.

Is this a sign of the success of the financial institution or its failure?

In the West, we’d generally assume that this situation was describing a Too Big To Fail bank.

But in China, apparently, the $200 billion capital injection in the China Investment Corp is “an acknowledgment from Beijing that CIC has performed well during a time of global turmoil.”

That’s not a line from some Chinese government spokesperson. It is from the Financial Times.

We’ve pointed out before that China really does seem to be the land through the looking glass. Folks who are skeptical about the efficacy of government spending seem to lose that skepticism altogether when it comes to China. It’s as if the rent-seeking, knowledge and calculations problems, and the outright fraud just vanish on the far side of the China Sea.

Of course, there are indications that this move actually indicates financial distress in China rather than strength. After all, one of the drivers for the new infusion is to allow the CIC to pass the money on to China’s largest banks. But this too is being spun as a sign of strength.

From the FT:

Another factor influencing the decision to give CIC more money is the fact that China’s largest banks are expected to raise roughly $50bn in new capital over the next couple of years to meet tighter regulatory requirements.

Since CIC holds controlling stakes in most of China’s largest banks, the fund must provide much of this capital to avoid seeing its holdings diluted.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Jim Chanos: We’re Shorting Autos, China, And Commodities But Not Financials
• Get Ready For Epic Stimulus Spending Out Of China In The Final Couple Weeks Of December
• China’s Big Four Banks Slash Lending In November

Google has been using logo ‘doodles’ for years now to mark special occasions and celebrations and lately it looks like it’s stepping up the process. So, it’s not much of a surprise that Google is sporting a holiday related logo already and, in fact, it’s the first from a series of images which the search engine will apparently roll out during this period.

To start things off, Google is now displaying an image of a post card over the regular logo, though not the usual snow, Christmas trees or reindeers but rather sand and palm trees. It’s not completely out of theme though, as the palm tree is decked out with Christmas lights. Moving the mouse over the doodle reveals a note from the company wishing “Happy Holidays from Google!”

Clicking on the doodle doesn’t lead to the usual search results page but rather to a page listing the Google logos for the 2009 holidays. Seeing as this is the first, it’s the only one listed at the moment, but the page does indicate that others are coming. The next one could be coming as early as tomorrow and we’ll have to wait and see how long the series goes. What’s more, Google may have a few more surprises ready as it gets closer to Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Google’s homepage has another interesting trick up its sleeve, introduced a short while… (read more)

I’m not on an airplane again until 2010 (1/6/10 to be exact when I head to Las Vegas for CES) which is a relief since I flew 87 segments 2009.  Ok – not as much as Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air (very good BTW) but enough to decide to boycott United whenever possible.

One pleasant surprise on a flight from DEN to OAK on SWA was the presence of Wi-Fi.  I paid my $12 and worked online for two hours instead of using my airplane sleeping superpower.  Little did I know that I was on one of the four planes in the SWA fleet of 500 that had Wi-Fi according to the Gizmodo Complete Inflight Wi-Fi Cheat Sheet.

I think 2010 is the year that Wi-Fi will finally roll out across the domestic airline fleet.  It’s been in the works since 2000 and I remembered waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Connexion to roll out.  And then forgetting about it.  Until sometime earlier this year when Virgin America started offering in-flight Wi-Fi and quickly became my (and many of my friends) method of transport between the east coast and the west coast.  Todd Dagres from Spark Capital nailed it when he tweeted (presumably from an airplane) “True fact – planes with WiFi travel 2x faster than planes without.”

There is something magical about sitting on a seat in a giant metal tube that is flying 30,000 feet above the earth and playing FarmVille.  It finally feels like this is going to happen in 2010.  Hopefully there will be a lot more FarmVille than Skype on airplanes, although if everyone on the plane is on Skype at the same time it probably won’t bother anyone – too much. 

If you are traveling on a flight using Gogo Inflight Internet, My Money Blog has published a set of promotional codes that will give you free Wi-Fi through 1/7/10.  Oh – and join the Gizmodo Mile High Club while you are at it.

And one final question – is it “Wi-Fi” or “WiFi”?  That’ll keep the airline marketing weenies busy for a while trying to figure out the right answer.

Un culebrón menos en la Fórmula 1. Jose María López ya ha firmado un contrato con la nueva escudería USF1. La noticia ha sido confirmada por el propio piloto en el siguiente comunicado:

El presupuesto ya está. Ahora tenemos que esperar sólo unos días para que se realice el anuncio. Ellos están tan ansiosos como nosotros de confirmar todo.

Por lo tanto, se espera que el anuncio oficial se haga por lo menos antes del día de navidad. También cabe destacar que ya tienen casi finalizado su monoplaza en Charlotte.

Además, para ir preparando su regreso a la Fórmula 1 y asi poder refrescar el pilotaje de un monoplaza, López tiene previstas una sesiones de entrenamiento con un F3 en el circuito Termas de Río Hondo para los días 28 y 29 de diciembre.

Related posts:

1. Kimi Raikkonen podría haber firmado un pre-contrato con Red Bull
2. USF1 montará su sede europea en Motorland Aragón
3. La escudería USF1 rechaza a los pilotos no estadounidenses

Filed under: Etc.

A little over a year ago a stunt driver named Chris Morena took a Dodge pickup off a dealer lot, installed a roll cage, racing seat and metal bracing for the bed, then used it to jump over a slew of cars and through two fireballs. He was only trying to go 134 feet. Instead, he went 193 feet and set a jumping distance record in a pickup.

Until a few days ago. That’s when race driver Jonny Greaves took his closed-course 2WD racing truck and jumped 301 feet and happily remained alive to talk about it. Employing a bit of Back to the Future precision, calculations had worked out that his truck had to be the end of the jump ramp going 105.5 mph and, managing to hit that, he went exactly 301 feet. It isn’t car launching, but it’s now the mark to beat for 2WD trucks.

Just as impressive, Greaves had been doing practice runs that went as far as 200 feet before the record-setting attempt, and he nailed those as well. Perhaps Travis Pastrana, who’s had slightly less luck on the run-up to his 270-foot New Year’s Eve stunt, might want to give Greaves a ring.

[Source: Race Dezert]

Jonny Greaves jumps 301 feet to claim 2WD truck record originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This chart from Fitch, via Paul Kedrosky, shows the history of Las Vegas since 1971.

As Paul notes:

You can see some interesting trends, including that the current troubles really began, as was the case in most of the U.S. back in the late-1990s, as visitor traffic growth fell off below 5% and Vegas tried every trick to compensate.

Meanwhile, the 2008-2011 period is seeing some major growth in room inventory once again. Let’s hope visitor volume growth really jumps las they expect.

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See Also:

• Dubai’s Overbuilt Hotels Make Vegas Look Healthy
• Meet The Man Who Blew $127 Million And Most Of His Family’s Fortune Gambling In Vegas
• Famed Vegas Icon Binion’s Hotel To Close Down